The visible effects of ‘invisible politics’: ‘everyday forms of resistance’ and possible outcomes

ABSTRACT

We evaluate existing case studies of ‘everyday forms of resistance’ and explore the possibilities for a systematic research on its political impacts. Due to its elusive nature, the impact of this less visible resistance has rarely been studied. We only find single case studies that make references to varied outcomes in a particular context. Main theorists within the field do suggest a loose hypothesis of ‘cumulative’ effects in which (thousands of) individual acts can have a significant impact over time, with triggered mobilization of ‘scale shifts’ into public mass actions. Our exploration points to a potential for establishing knowledge of immediate outcomes, particularly through comparative case studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Power
• everyday resistance
• research methodology
• outcomes
• research program

Acknowledgments

This article has developed from being discussed in several fora, and has evolved with time. We wish to thank the participants at the Nordic Nonviolence Research Seminar NORNOS 2018, the panel at the Peace and Justice Studies Association conference 2018, and the panel at the International Studies Association conference 2019, as well as the two reviewers, James Scott, and Mark Haugaard, who all read versions of this article, and gave invaluable feedback and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Established research on ‘scale shifts’ of mobilization is focused on collective and organized action, i.e. social movements, campaigns, etc. Thus, that research has virtually nothing to say about the scale shifts from everyday resistance to social movements. It is instead typically discussing how a social movement mobilization shifts from local to national levels, or transnational levels (see e.g. Tarrow 1998; Chabot 2003).

2. See for example: http://losspreventionmedia.com/insider/employee-theft/analyzing-employee-theft-statistics-from-a-specialty-retailer/(Accessed 4 August 2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carol Daniel Kasbari

Dr. Stellan Vinthagen is professor of sociology, a scholar-activist, and the Endowed Chair in the Study of Nonviolent Direct Action and Civil Resistance at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is the Director of the Resistance Studies Initiative at Amherst (USA), and researcher at the Department of Sociology at University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

Stellan Vinthagen

Dr. Carol Daniel Kasbari is an Adjunct Professor at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University (Carter School) in Fairfax, Virginia, and a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute for the Program on Palestine and Palestinian–Israeli Affairs in Washington DC. She is a scholar-practitioner with 20-plus years leading programs in the field of conflict mitigation, advocacy and nonviolent resistance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and Europe.